A Journey into the Past

Credit River, Mississauga

Blog 9



Almost 25 years ago, on April 21, 1995, I arrived in Canada with my future husband leaving behind the life I had created for myself. Upon our arrival in Toronto, I was greeted by a landscape that looked uninviting and lifeless. There was no sign of the beautiful country with lots of spacious woods and lakes that everyone was raving about when they talked about Canada; it was depressing.


25 years later, life has changed in so many ways that no one could have imagined. Over the next couple of months, I am going to write about the transformation of a homesick young woman, who felt alone and excluded, to the strong woman who has her own business and a wonderful community around her.


I decided to tell my story year by year based on my journals. I will uncover the painful beginnings and the slow adjustments to a new life that was very different from my life in Germany. When I think about it, it was a little bit like our current situation. I will tell you more when I start writing about my first year in Canada next week. Given our current situation, it may be easier to step into my shoes at the time, when I was feeling isolated from my colleagues, my friends, my family, and my home.


I hope that my journey will also give you the courage to dream of the world that is ahead of us, once life has reached a certain level of normality again. I invite you to follow my story starting next Friday. If I have piqued your interest, I encourage you to read my 2016 blogs, starting with the blog of my first impressions of Canada: https://kerstinpeterspaintingblog.blogspot.com/2016/01/first-impressions-of-canada.html. In 2016, I wrote in detail about my experiences during my first year in Canada.

Additionally, if you would like to learn my mother tongue and find out more about German culture and traditions, I invite you to join my new programme Learn Basic German Through Art. I created one course for children and one for adults. The courses run from May 5 to June 11, 2020. The programme combines my art and language teaching experience to teach everyday German with the help of art projects. Combining language instruction with art projects will help you and your children to visualize what we are learning. You will have more fun to learn new vocabulary and expressions. As I can tell from experience, learning a new language will help you to make new friends, to learn more about other cultures, and to have more fun when on vacations. As I am offering this programme for the first time, the registration fee is discounted by 50%. Even though this is a virtual course, enrollment is limited to six participants for the children's and eight participants for the adult course. To register and for more information, please go to https://www.kerstinpeters.ca/product-category/registration/. Please do not hesitate to contact me at info@KerstinPeters.ca if you have any further questions.